In California which is very seismically active, we have between 40 and 80 earthquakes a day. Some of them very small, typically only measured by instruments that are extremely sensitive, but a few of those earthquakes come above the threshold to be felt by people.

Hallo, thoughtful viewers, and welcome to Planet Earth: Our Loving Home. Thus far in 2010 several powerful earthquakes have struck the Earth, with January’s 7.3 magnitude quake in Haiti and February’s 8.8 magnitude temblor in southern Chile causing the most destruction as they were centered in highly populated areas.

On today’s program we’ll speak with Dr. Jim Goltz, Earthquake and Tsunami Program Manager in the Preparedness Division of the California Emergency Management Agency, USA to learn about earthquakes and appropriate responses to a quake. Dr. Goltz has been involved in earthquake research, planning, preparedness and mitigation for 35 years. To begin, he will discuss what causes temblors and how to know if a quake is occurring.

Earthquakes occur on faults. There are thousands of faults around the world. Some of the largest earthquakes occur around the borders of the great tectonic plates that characterize our planet. And we just recently had two of those earthquakes on plate boundaries, the earthquake in Haiti and also the earthquake in Chile. So these are large plate boundary events. The earthquake process is largely random.

We have earthquakes somewhere in the world every day and it just happens that occasionally, unfortunately, large earthquakes happen near populated centers and then we have a disaster. It’s very frequent that we have large earthquakes out in the ocean or in unpopulated areas and they simply don’t make the news at all. And how would people know when an earthquake is occurring?

Well, obviously you perceive the shaking and sometimes the shaking is very slight. It can be confused with a truck going by or, a sonic boom or something else, but the very large earthquakes that cause damage are pretty unmistakable. The ground motion, the shaking and the noise, it’s pretty evident when you have a large earthquake occurring.

Seismologists use a scale to measure the intensity of an earthquake and Dr. Goltz now explains this system.

We use what we call the “Moment Magnitude Scale” typically. But the scales are logarithmic, so the earthquake that is a magnitude seven is about 32 times the energy released than a six. So, at magnitude seven, the Haiti earthquake compared to the Chilean earthquake at magnitude 8.8, the 8.8 was about 500 times larger than the earthquake that hit Haiti.

We often hear different terms to describe types of earthquakes, such as “pre-shock,” “main shock” and “aftershock.” What do these terms mean?

The main shock is typically the largest earthquake that occurs in a sequence. Sometimes you have a smaller earthquake that occurs prior to the main shock, which we call a pre-shock. And then of course in the case of both Chile and Haiti, we had many relatively large aftershocks that occur in the same zone in which the main shock occurred, but follow the main shock. In many cases, probably in the case of the earthquake in Chile, those aftershocks will go on for months and perhaps even years.

To maximize safety, what’s the best way to react when we sense an earthquake is occurring?

There are good ways to respond and there are not so good ways to respond. I think the most important thing that people can understand about earthquakes is don’t run. We highly discourage running during the shaking of an earthquake. Many people do, but epidemiological studies that have been done by schools of public health following earthquakes (say), “The greater the movement of people, the greater the probability of injury.”

We had an earthquake in Paso Robles in central California (USA) in 2003, just before Christmas. And the only fatalities in that earthquake were two women, who were in an unreinforced masonry building that was serving as a store.

And had they stayed in the building, they would have been perfectly okay, but they ran outside, part of the roof slid off and killed them both. So, we recommend strongly that you stay inside, take cover, rather than going outside during the shaking.

We recommend that people drop, cover under something heavy, like a table or a desk and hold on to that. We feel that the greatest danger is from falling objects within a building, not so much the collapse of the building which is often rare, but from objects within the house, lighting fixtures, pictures, books, various objects that could cause injury. So again, what we recommend is that people learn that when they feel an earthquake they should drop, cover and hold on.

Until the shaking ends. If it’s clear after the earthquake is over, once the shaking ceases, if there’s obviously damage, you should exit the building. But do it in a deliberate way; you needn’t run after the shaking has stopped.

During a seismic event, natural gas pipes and appliances can become damaged and begin to release gas into the air. This is highly dangerous as an explosion or fire can occur if the gas ignites. If one does smell gas, Dr. Goltz has the following advice.

You should turn off the gas. Turn off the gas at the main, at the source.

When we return, Dr. Goltz will continue to share earthquake survival tips. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Planet Earth: Our Loving Home here on Supreme Master Television and our program on earthquake safety featuring Dr Jim Goltz, Earthquake and Tsunami Program Manager in the Preparedness Division of the California Emergency Management Agency, USA. Next, Dr. Goltz explains how to proceed if we’re in a high rise building when a quake strikes.

Don’t use the elevator. Don’t use elevators.

I think in a high rise building with a lot of windows, you’d want to move away from the windows. An interior wall is also an alternative; if there’s nothing to get under, we recommend that people just drop, cover and hold on next to an interior wall.

And also people with disabilities, I mean there’s certain people who are wheelchair bound, for example, who can’t get under a table, but they should, remain where they are, move away from windows but also just to crouch and cover their heads and lock the wheels on their wheelchair.

Is a doorway a safe place to be during a temblor? Will it provide adequate protection?

I think it’s an important point to bring up. I think early on, maybe in the early part of the 20th century, we noticed that when there was severe damage due to earthquakes of unreinforced masonry buildings, sometimes a doorway seemed to provide the greatest protection, because it was reinforced.

But I think as time went on, and unreinforced masonry buildings became reinforced or they simply were torn down, the door jamb ceased to be the best place to be. For one thing, it’s not necessarily anymore that it’s reinforced. Second of all, a door has hinges and can move back and forth; you can either pinch your fingers in the door or the door can slam into you while you’re standing there for protection.

So, again the current best practice is to get under heavy furniture, preferably a table or desk and hold on to it. Because even very heavy objects like a desk can move in an earthquake, so basically you move with it, but underneath.

If one is outside a structure during a seismic event, Dr. Goltz has the following ideas for keeping safe.

I think if you’re outside, you’re generally okay. There’s probably nothing that’s going to fall on you. I would be concerned about overhead electrical wires. Trees typically don’t get knocked over by earthquakes. They certainly probably shake quite a bit, but, unless something is terribly old and ready to come down anyway, but I generally wouldn’t worry about trees.

If you’re on the freeway or if you’re on a road or a street, generally the earthquake has to be about a magnitude 5.5 before you can actually perceive it as being an earthquake. If you sense shaking while you’re driving, it’s recommended that you pull over in a safe area, not under (electrical) wires preferably, not on a bridge or under a bridge; just pull over and stay in the car. The car has shock absorbers; it’ll probably give you greater protection than if you were to get out onto the street or the berm of the street.

To conclude today’s program, Dr. Goltz has some suggestions on preparing children for an earthquake and how to help them cope with their emotions following the event.

Children are one of our greatest assets in disaster response, because children actually take our advice seriously. Sometimes adults don't. But I think that it is important for children to understand what to do in an earthquake, how to respond, and often though, it's children who are the teachers and the parents who are the students, because often we have curricula in our schools that deal with earthquakes and tsunamis, particularly in earthquake and tsunami prone areas.

And children seem to understand and recall what to do very, very well. There was a young girl who was vacationing in Thailand at the time of the Sumatra Earthquake and Indian Ocean Tsunami who, when she observed the ocean recede at the beach resort where they were staying, she realized immediately that this was a sign that a tsunami was coming. She notified her parents, her parents told the hotel, the hotel was able to notify about a hundred people staying there, and those people all survived.

So, I think that the children are a wonderful asset, they're great teachers. And I think that parents need to reinforce the information that they have, affirm it, and do it themselves. We always encourage teachers whenever there are drills in schools, to also drop, cover and hold on, not stand there and watch the children do it, because they have to understand that adults take this seriously as well.

But generally, children do pretty well and occasionally we do find that in the aftermath of earthquakes, sometimes we want to encourage children to express how they felt about the earthquake, to talk about their fears, and make sure that there are no lingering concerns or things that they need to talk about but they can’t.

We sincerely thank Dr. Jim Goltz for sharing his precious knowledge on earthquake survival skills. Please join us next Wednesday on Planet Earth: Our Loving Home, when he’ll provide more advice about earthquake safety.

For continually updated details on earthquakes around the world please visit: United States Geological Survey’s Earthquake Hazards Program Earthquake.USGS.gov

Thank you for your kind company on today’s edition of Planet Earth: Our Loving Home. Up next is Enlightening Entertainment, following Noteworthy News. May we all be embraced by the Divine love and grace from Heaven.

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